This past weekend the Pioneer Band participated in the Spooktacular parade in Oblong, the Halloween night time parade that is also a marching band competition.  The Pioneer Band competed in the Combined Band category with four other bands. The Combined Band is any band that combines junior high and high school students, mostly in smaller schools.  

The Pioneer Band includes twenty-four 6th through 12th graders, but only four of them are high schoolers, including one freshman, one sophomore, one junior, and one senior.  

The band practiced last Wednesday and Thursday during 8th hour and then right before they left for the parade on Saturday.  The end result was that the band received 2nd place Overall, 3rd place Drum Major, and 2nd place Percussion.

Some members of the band didn’t think that they would do as well as they did because they did not have much time to practice together.  

The Pioneer Band knew that Mr. Downes, the former PHS band director, was going to be there with Mattoon Middle School, and after they saw the Mattoon band perform, some Pioneer Band members were emotional.

Jade Monroe, a junior in the band, told the band to use all this emotion in the performance and they would have the performance they were looking for.